


Friendly Pushing

by ani_bester



Category: Captain America (Comics), Invaders (Marvel), Young Avengers
Genre: Gen, Generation Gap, Memories, down time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 15:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1392661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ani_bester/pseuds/ani_bester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate goes to Toro for advice on how to get Bucky to actually kick back and relax for once, because she and the other Younger Avengers haven't managed to get him to do that just yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendly Pushing

**Author's Note:**

> I love the idea of Bucky and Toro being mentor figures for the Young Avengers. This is sort of set in random fanfic time but is set during the original team time, though only Kate has a major role.

“Does he ever just stop and chill?”

Toro looked up from the cereal he’d been pouring into a bowl and nodded to the dark haired teenage girl that had just entered Bucky's kitchen like a compacted force of nature. 

“Good morning to you too Kate, and if you mean Steve, then yes, sometimes. But if you mean Bucky, then no, not really, but he thinks he does.”

Kate leaned against the white wall and shook his head.

“We invited Bucky to see Grindhouse with us, but he has to train." She held up one finger and then a second. "Then we invited Bucky to a rave but he has to catch up in events he missed in a book as opposed to living them, we invited him to cheesy movie night in the downstairs den and even said he could bring whatever files he felt he needed to go over, but he still declined.” 

Kate put her hands on her hips and huffed in frustration. “Sam even offered to just play cards with him but it seems he only does that to pass the time on stake outs!”

Toro shook his head and mentally reminded himself to tell Steve that Bucky was taking the whole ‘living legacy’ thing too seriously. 

“Venting or advice?” Toro asked as he went to the fridge for some milk.

Kate sighed, “Just, well you know him, so advice.”

“I knew him,” Toro corrected in a soft voice.

Kate gave him a brief look of sympathy, but then pushed on with the task she’d told the others she could do, 

“Well what kinds of things did you both do to chill out.”

Toro smiled a moment, remembering laying with his head against Bucky's chest listening to Bucky's reassuring heart beat.

Kate glared at him. “So what was it?”

Toro ducked his head as he began to search for a spoon. “I’m not much help, to be honest," he told her, still not able to make eye contact. "what we did to 'relax' during the war,” he paused as less welcome memories tried to grab his attention, but he pushed them away. “We had to not think. If we did, everything ended up revolving around the war." He picked up a dirty spoon from the counter and went to the sink. 

As he washed it, he continued. "Even at a dance hall there was always the idea that this could be- The War- it colored everything and made relaxing hard, and so some of the things we did were . . . .” he trailed, finally glancing up to catch the young woman's gaze, hoping that she understood and didn’t press. Thankfully, Kate gave a thoughtful nod and said nothing. 

Toro picked up his breakfast and sat down at the table. 

Kate pulled out the chair across from his and rested her head on the table. “I just don’t know what to try anymore. He needs to chill, massively, and I think he likes hanging with us, but he just, I don't know, always looks like he’s waiting for a bomb to go off, you know? And don’t call me a mother hen,” Kate interjected before Toro could say anything. “The others agree with me too, they just haven’t got the guts to come in and ask you about it.”

Toro took a bite of cereal and tried to not laugh. The idea of him being intimidating or awe inspiring was still ridiculous in his mind, but then the Invaders had been made ludicrously larger than life, a problem he was still adjusting to having been public in his return. Pushing his own issues away, he thought on Kate’s question as he ate.

“Why a rave?” Toro asked as he pushed his empty bowl away. 

Kate glanced up. “Eli remembered him saying he liked to dance. So we figured a rave was a good place to cut loose.”

Toro nodded, “Yeah Bucky does like to dance, and that’s honestly not a bad idea, except it’s very you centered.”

“Hey, I’m not the raver, Ted-“

Toro shook his head. “No sorry, I mean it’s very modern youth culture. Bucky is not modern and he isn’t a youth. Hell, Bucky wasn’t a youth when he was 16, but that’s beside the point. Look the last time you were in a noisy place with bright lights and tons of people you were having fun and relaxing, right?”

Kate nodded.

“Okay, the last time Bucky and I were in a noisy place with bright lights and tons of people we were in The War. I don’t know what triggers for Bucky, but I could never relax at a rave.”

“Oh,” Kate said softly.

“Yeah, look you’ve got good ideas, movies, dances and they like, but then you think of what you like and what you are comfortable with. If you are trying to get Bucky to relax dragging him 60 miles outside of his comfort zone isn’t going to help. But start slow and he’ll get there."

Kate nodded then her expression changed and Toro could tell she’d had an idea. Pushing back from the table, she left as abruptly as she’d entered, yelling her thanks form half-way down the hall. 

 

The next evening, Toro was hanging up his keys after coming back from visiting Ann, when Bucky grabbed him by the arm. 

"Come here now!" 

“Whatever it is, don’t kill me,” Toro squeaked.

“Nat and I need you to cast a deciding vote,” Bucky told him as Toro was dragged into the den. 

“Ok, Nat says I’m pushing too fast past the basics of swing, but c’mon, you’ve seen the kids fight. Athletically they’re a past one, two, step-step and all that.”

“Swings dance?”

“Yeah, you know that dancing we used to do,” Toro caught Bucky’s pained the ‘why do you make me explain the obvious’ expression and opted to continue to look clueless because an aggravated Bucky was amusing. 

“Kate and Eli wanted to learn, and Billy and Teddy joined in.” Bucky continued, “I had the night free, and so did Nat. I figured why not, but now I need you to tell Nat I’m not a maniac.”

Toro glanced over at Kate, Elli, Billy, and Teddy then turned back to Bucky. “I think you need a bigger room.” Toro said in as best an imitation of Brian’s dry humor as he could manage “And you are, in fact, a maniac.” 

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Tell Natalia that I taught you to swing dance just fine.”

“Well, he did teach me, he did skip the basics, and try as I might I can’t find any way that his swing instructions were related to why I died.” Toro said as he grinned at Natasha. 

Natasha threw up her arms. “Fine, fine, but it’s on you two if there are broken bones to be explained.”

“Right, fine,” Bucky exclaimed, grabbing Natasha’s hand and taking her to the center of the room. “Ok the flips are really the fun part,” he tells them.

As Toro crossed to a far wall, he caught a mischievous gleam in Natsha’s eye and wondered if it occurred to Bucky that she could flip him as easily as he could flip her. 

Hoping for amusement’s sake, that he read Natsha right, Toro moved over to Kate. As he leaned against the wall, he smiled at her and gave her a nod. When she smiled back, Toro mouthed the words “good job.”

Kate grinned.


End file.
